Hi David,

Thanks for using Sage City.

Just need to get clarification on what you mean by 'not corrupted by their previous version'? My interpretation is you would not want it to show their out of date data? If so the new company created at the bookkeepers machine, connected via sage, drive would not be affected by the older company data restored locally on their machine. This is because it will only be showing the same information at your main machine as they will be synced together.

Just to give a quick overview of how Sage Drive work:

Your main computer, where your data is held and where you do most of your processing, is where we would advise that you upload the data to Sage Drive - this then becomes known as the Main Site, and the company on it when you log in would show as Sage Drive - Main.

Once you have uploaded the data to Sage Drive, and made sure it has the most up to date data, this then means a computer located somewhere else (i.e the bookkeeper) can connect to sage drive remotely - this becomes the remote site. This is done by, on the remote machine, adding a new company then choosing the option to connect via sage drive, rather than restore a backup etc. 

This means on the remote site there will be two companies listed - one which is the company that was restored from a backup from the USB, and a second which shows as Sage Drive - Remote. 

Provided there is an internet connection (that meets the minimum requirements) the information at your main site, and the company that says Sage Drive - Remote on the second machine would always be showing the same information. Whenever someone processes at either site, they are always in sync and continually update.

PLEASE NOTE: Sage Drive is not cloud storage, but just a way to connect two devices together using the cloud, so you must keep taking regular backups. I like to use the following analogy - think of it as a road rather than a garage.

I would definitely advise reading up about how to set up Sage Drive and how it works for more information before starting to use it - https://my.sage.co.uk/public/help.aspx#/customer/support/accounts/category/sage-drive

If you have any more questions, the Sage City community is here for you.

Regards,

Oliver
Sage UKI

Thank you.  Vry helpful. I wasn't aware of the link you mention.

Hi John,

If you only have a one company licence you have two options.

Option 1 - Purchase multi company licence which will give you the flexibility to have more than one company listed at a time.

Option 2 - Add new company over the top of the current one listed.

I would do Option 2, unless you want the ability to be able to have more than one company going forward. In that case contact our Sales team.

Option 2 involves doing the following at the remote machine (the one you want to become the remote site).

1. On the select company window, select the existing company.
2. Click on Open Folder Location at the top. File explorer pops up where you see a list of folders including ACCDATA.
3.  Close down Sage 
4. Rename ACCDATA to ACCDATA.old.
5. Create a new folder and name it ACCDATA. 
6. Open up Sage again, and now on the select company window instead of your company it will say
   ***NO DATA FOUND***
7. Double click on the ***NO DATA FOUND***, and it will prompt you to create a company, where you can then select Connect to data via Sage Drive which you were trying to get to originally.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Oliver
Sage UKI

Thanks.

If I do these adjustments, are they irreversible? Will they affect the way Sage Accounts works?

Say I decided not to use Sage Drive, would Sage Accounts on the computer work the same as before I made the above modifications with back up and restore etc?

Sorry to ask, but sage accounts is essential to the business.

Hi John,

The changes mentioned above do not affect the way Sage works. It's only affecting the data path to allow you to add a new company in place of the one you already have listed when you have only a one company licence. The changes also do not affect any other machine.

So instead of it showing a company where the data is held locally because you restored a back up, it will show your company and say Sage Drive - Remote once you have added it via Sage Drive.

If you decided to no longer use Sage Drive on that machine, you would use the Sage Drive removal tool at the remote site, which would then disconnect that machine from Sage Drive, and it would remove the Sage Drive - Remote company from the list. Only Demo Data and Practice Data would show. You could then Add Company and restore data from a backup to work on the data locally again like before, rather than being connected to your main machine via Sage Drive (back to not being in sync).

If you would like someone to talk you through the process as you do it, you can use our Live Q&A platform or you can call our technical support to advise you on what to do and how to do it.

The alternative option is to purchase a multi company licence, which means not having to rename any folders etc. That would mean you could have your company listed where you could restore a backup locally on the machine if you wanted, and also have a second company listed connected via Sage Drive, which is always in sync with your Main Site (provided your internet connection is fine).

If you'd prefer the multi-company licence option you can call 0800 33 66 33 to find out how much that would be.

Before you do either of those two options, just make sure you have an up to date back up. That way you do not have to worry about your data.

Regards,

Oliver
Sage UKI

Thanks for all your help. Cheers!